The UK Offshore Wind and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Colocation Forum, set as much as present strategic coordination of colocation analysis and exercise on the nation’s seabed, has commissioned two analysis tasks. The tasks are designed to tell one of the best strategy to check and show the colocation of offshore wind and CCS actions sooner or later.
To obtain the UK’s web zero targets, the UK Government is concentrating on the supply of fifty gigawatts of offshore wind power and the seize of 20-30 million tons of CO2 per yr by 2030. Such bold targets, alongside the competing calls for from different offshore sectors, will place elevated demand on finite seabed house, making the colocation of offshore wind and CCS more and more essential.
The analysis tasks – Project Colocate and Project Anemone – construct on the Forum’s Spatial Characterisation Report, which recognized areas of potential overlap for offshore wind and CCS on the seabed, and NSTA’s Seismic Imaging Report, which explored numerous choices for monitoring carbon storage and offshore wind websites to assist resolve potential colocation points.
Delivered by the University of Aberdeen with funding from The Crown Estate and Crown Estate Scotland, Project Colocate will examine the viability of areas on the seabed for colocation of CCS and offshore wind, with bespoke monitoring plans for every space, supporting the Forum’s ambition to create a pipeline of potential check & demonstration websites for the longer term. Researchers from the University of Aberdeen will focus their investigations on the East Irish Sea and Central North Sea, each of which have been recognized as having important potential for future colocation of CCS and offshore wind.
The complementary Project Anemone will discover mutually helpful alternatives arising from the colocation of those growing industries. The venture goals to establish and map the routes to realising these alternatives to create sensible steering for the way offshore wind and CCS applied sciences can function alongside one another – from development by to decommissioning. The Forum is liaising with NECCUS, the alliance supporting industrial decarbonisation in Scotland, alongside a number of builders, to ship Project Anemone.
Adrian Topham, Chair of the OW & CCS Colocation Forum at The Crown Estate, stated: “The offshore wind and CCS capability of the UK needs to develop at a rapid rate if the country is to meet its 2050 net zero target and build electricity supply. The Crown Estate is determined to maximise the potential of the seabed by ensuring a coordinated approach to its management that enables the colocation of offshore wind and CCS infrastructure. This is in keeping with The Crown Estate’s long-term and holistic approach to managing the land and seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland in a way that supports net zero and energy security, whilst protecting the natural environment.
“Project Colocate will identify areas of the seabed that are potentially viable for colocation, whilst Project Anemone will help uncover how future practical demonstration might proceed. Together, both projects will help pave the way for test and demonstration, as well as facilitating greater collaboration and understanding between these two vital sectors.”
Tom Mallows, Head of Offshore Development for Emerging Technologies and Infrastructure, at Crown Estate Scotland, stated: “Our ScotWind Leasing round, which saw the successful awarding of 20 projects with a combined intended installed capacity of 27.6GW, and our most recent offshore wind leasing round INTOG (Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas), demonstrates the huge clean energy opportunity which offshore wind offers. It also highlights how important Project Colocate will be in helping establish a clear set of measures and tools to help ensure CCS is provided for in a considered and complementary way alongside offshore wind as an essential component of the transition to a decarbonised economy.”
Professor John Underhill, University Director for Energy Transition and Professor of Geoscience on the University of Aberdeen, stated: “There is a pressing need for establishing a robust workflow to assess, critically evaluate and identify suitable and viable areas of the seabed for colocation of offshore wind and CCS. Project Colocate will critically assess the future potential of the seabed for the co-existence of offshore wind and CCS, helping to inform the work regulators and other key stakeholders are doing on marine spatial planning to optimise its potential.”
Chaired by The Crown Estate, the Offshore Wind and CCS Colocation Forum brings collectively companions together with NSTA, Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA), RenewableUK, OWIC, Government and Crown Estate Scotland to establish the important thing challenges and alternatives related to the colocation of offshore wind and CCS infrastructure.
The Forum kinds a part of The Crown Estate’s and Crown Estate Scotland’s shared ambition to undertake a long-term strategy to seabed administration by offering strategic coordination on how the UK can maximise the potential of the seabed for these two vital actions. As a part of this strategy, The Crown Estate has not too long ago commenced pioneering work to digitally map the seabed useful resource wanted to fulfill future demand, enabling the supply of a number of priorities together with net-zero and nature, in addition to the improved coordination of future actions out to 2050.
